Posted on 01/17/2004 2:32:27 PM PST by BenLurkin
DETROIT (AP) - The Justice Department is investigating possible misconduct by the lead prosecutor in the nation's first major post-Sept. 11 terrorism trial, according to a published report. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins requested the investigation in November after discovering possible ethical violations involving Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday, citing sources it did not name.
The allegations include withholding evidence from defense attorneys and trying to convince a court employee to get confidential information about a prisoner, the newspaper said.
Convertino said Collins is trying to destroy his reputation and career.
"This is so untrue, one-sided and about as low as it gets," Convertino said.
The case, in which Moroccan immigrants Karim Koubriti and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi were convicted last June of being part of a terror cell, was hailed as an early success in the Bush administration's war on terror. But the case came in danger of unraveling last month after revelations that government lawyers failed to turn over certain information to the defense.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen held a hearing on the issue last month and is deciding whether to throw out the convictions.
A Justice Department spokesman said Saturday he couldn't confirm or deny whether an investigation was taking place. Collins has declined to comment.
The newspaper said Collins told the Justice Department that Convertino tried to persuade a pretrial services employee at U.S. District Court to dig up damaging confidential information about a federal prisoner; failed to inform another federal prosecutor before he approached a drug defendant to assist in the terrorism case; withheld evidence from defense lawyers; and failed to get approval before arranging plea deals and sentence reductions.
The inquiry is being conducted by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, after Collins told the department about the possible violations, the newspaper reported.
Convertino's lawyer William Sullivan said, "Obviously, I can't comment on the existence of an OPR investigation. But to the extent such allegations exist, we categorically deny them as untrue and unsubstantiated."
B. Some prosecutors are over-zealous, and this one may be one.
C. If Ashcroft ordered this, why would he have an investigation of the prosecutor?
In order to 'clear' him?
B. Some prosecutors are over-zealous, and this one may be one.
Ashcroft's raping and pillaging of the Tenth Amendment give over-zelocity a new benchmark.
C. If Ashcroft ordered this, why would he have an investigation of the prosecutor?
For the same reason OJ is still looking for the killer.
John Ashcroft was an honorable and conservative senator. There is no reason to assign him diabolic motives.
Ashcroft hasn't burned up a group of Americans on nationwide television. If he had done something so reprehensible, I would expect you to attack him.
Instead, you are taking the Patriot Act to the extreme interpretation, and attacking him based on your suspicions.
There are multiple possibilities for the results of the Army's investigation. One is that they didn't like what they found.
Another is that there was nothing there to cause further action.
I have no idea which was the answer, but I don't believe Ashcroft had anything to do with your brother's death or the subsequent investigation.
Hindsight always is easy. There is plenty of culpability for failing to anticipate Sept. 11, and even if mistakes weren't made, the tragedy might have occurred anyway. But as the nation's chief law enforcement officer, John Ashcroft's pre-Sept. 11 agenda was fighting gun control, abortion, state laws permitting assisted suicide or medical marijuana and going after hookers and their clients, not terrorism.
An attorney general sets a tone; there are many more crimes than crime-catchers in America so priorities are important. Under Robert F. Kennedy, ambitious U.S. attorneys general or FBI agents zeroed in on organized crime. Under Janet Reno, prosecutions for Medicare and Medicaid fraud, a cause of hers, soared.
There is no reason to think Mr. Ashcroft ordered federal agents in New Orleans to spends hundreds and hundreds of hours watching and wiretapping brothels. But his underlings clearly knew that proving that sin and sex were pervasive wouldn't displease the boss. The endless drudgery of monitoring flight schools was not the path to advancement in the Ashcroft criminal justice system.
Al Hunt hates anyone who is remotely Republican, let alone conservative!
And as for Ashcroft's actions before 9/11, I think he was doing a good job. He was delayed in his taking office, and in addition Louis Freeh submitted his resignation and Robert Mueller didn't take charge of the FBI until the week before 9/11.
However, I have seen NO evidence that Ashcroft is an Orwellian dictator out to rob everyone of their civil rights. In my opinion the complaints based on misinformation from the leftist media.
John Ashcroft is a sanctimonious fraud. Anybody truly as pious as he presents himself would not ignore corruption in government as he has done. Easy examples are the backdated BIA scandal and the lynx fur scandal.
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